By: Michael Niziolek
Daunte Culpepper, Matthew Stafford and Drew Stanton all played well in the Lions third preseason game helping Detroit to an 18-17 win over the Indianapolis Colts.
All three quarterbacks had pretty solid stats.
Daunte Culpepper completed seven of 12 passes for 67 and threw a touchdown. Matthew Stafford threw for 160 yards on 13 completions and Drew Stanton completed four of six passes for 56 yards and a touchdown.
Stafford was the only quarterback to throw an interception, his third of the preseason, but Jim Schwartz said that the turnover wasn’t the rookie’s fault. Detroit took a shot at the endzone at the end of the second half and Schwartz said the receiver needs to make sure to knock the defender down.
"We took a shot right there, and I told the players at halftime, I said that's a lesson right there; wide receivers you need to go PI,” Schwartz explained. “You need to drag the guy down, run him over, whatever it is. We can't have the ball intercepted. We're running out of time in the half, we needed a chunk, we wanted to take a chunk, but you want your guy to be the only guy to come down with that football, so that's more on the wide receiver than on Matt (Stafford)."
Overall though Schwartz was happy with the offense’s play. After the game Schwartz credited them with keeping the Colts’ offense off the field.
“Our offense was able to control the ball,” Jim Schwartz said after the game. “When you play the Colts, when you play Peyton Manning, you better be able to control the football and limit his chances, and I thought that Scott (Linehan) and the offense did a great job of that.”
He said the main negative for the offense was their lack of red zone efficiency. In three trips to the red zone the Lions only came up with points once. Schwartz said it was frustrating because it was mistakes that prevented Detroit from scoring, not the Colts defense.
“We stopped ourselves,” he stated.
With no quarterback separating himself from the pack, fans will have to wait a little while longer for a resolution to the quarterback battle.
